Dear Parents/Carers,
Here we are at the end of the autumn term, getting very ready for Christmas and the New Year break. The last few weeks have been so very busy at St Mary’s. This is despite the recent snowy and icy conditions stopping us from having the Santa Hat fun run and the KS2 Carol Concert at church this week.
Christmas Fair – Thank you for supporting!
This community, feel-good, social fund-raising event was so well attended by so many parents, children and friends of St Mary’s. Wonderfully, the Parent School Association (PSA), raised in excess of £4,000 all of which will go towards providing fun and creative opportunities for your children, such as their recent pantomime experiences!
Christmas Nativities
If you managed to attend one of the nativity productions performed by our early years’ children, Church Lane KS1, or even the recent Rectory Gardens KS2 carol concert nativity at Rectory Gardens, I hope that you greatly enjoyed the experience. The children were nothing short of brilliant and like us, I hope that you too are rightly proud of them.
Music Concerts
Creative learning opportunities were also shown off to parents in a number of concerts held at Rectory Gardens by children across Years 3, 4, 5 & 6 over the past couple of weeks. Here, children played violins, trumpets, trombones and percussion as well as using their voices to demonstrate just how musically gifted they are.
Christmas Lunch & Class Parties
This week, we had our lovely, traditional Christmas lunch, complete with table decorations and Christmas crackers. Children also had much fun in their classrooms during their Christmas parties. Thank you for contributing to these.
Sporting Success
In addition to the myriad of exciting festive activities, we have also in recent weeks continued to excel sports-wise. So many of our children have taken part in events whether tennis, cycling or football – see below! Thank you Mr Oakley and Mr Allison as ever, for all that you do in motivating and supporting our children to take part and achieve so well in so many different sporting events.
Recent Ofsted Report
It has been a delight to share the recent Ofsted report with you ahead of the Christmas break. It marks the end of what has been a very difficult time at St Mary’s. I hope that it provides you with the reassurance, if needed, that our school is (and always was) a safe, secure and happy place for your child. We would go further than the Ofsted ‘Good’ grading and proudly proclaim that St Mary’s is nothing short of fantastic. My sincere and heartfelt thanks to so many of you for standing by us during this challenging period.
Goodbye and Thank you
Diane Day, a member of our support staff, currently working in Year 2 is taking early retirement and will leave at the end of this term. She has worked in many year groups across both sites and we thank her for her hard work and dedication and wish her all the best.
Helen Hutchings, Rest in Peace
Christmas is the most special time of year when families and friends come together and spend precious time with each other. All of us at St Mary’s are sending our love, prayers and thoughts to the family of Helen Hutchings, our beloved School Business Manager, who died recently after suffering a brain aneurysm while working at our Church Lane site. A number of us will be attending her funeral this coming Monday. The condolences received from so many of you will be relayed during the service. Again, we thank you for all of your support during this most difficult time.
Wishing you and your loved ones a very restful and peaceful Christmas and New Year and we look forward to welcoming you back to school on Wednesday 4th January 2023.
With very best regards,
Calvin Henry
Headteacher
